Department of Agriculture May 6, 2014 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Forest Service proposes to amend its internal Agency directives for Watershed and Air Management to establish direction for management of groundwater resources on National Forest System (NFS) lands as an integral component of watershed management. Specifically, the proposed amendment would provide direction on the consideration of groundwater resources in agency activities, approvals, and authorizations; encourage source water protection and water conservation; establish procedures for reviewing new proposals for groundwater withdrawals on NFS lands; require the evaluation of potential impacts from groundwater withdrawals on NFS resources; and provide for measurement and reporting for some larger groundwater withdrawals. This proposed amendment would supplement existing special uses and minerals and geology directives to address issues of groundwater resource management and would help ensure consistent and adequate analyses for evaluating potential uses of NFS lands that could affect groundwater resources. Public comment is invited and will be considered in development of the final directive. This proposed groundwater directive represents a change in the Forest Service's national policy on water management. The Forest Service wants to ensure that there is sufficient time for potentially affected parties, including States, to comment. Thus the Agency is providing an extended comment period for the proposed directive. In addition, the Forest Service will host a webinar on the proposed directive to present information and answer questions on the proposed policy and the comment process during the first half of the comment period. Additional meetings and/or webinars will be offered as needed. Specific information regarding the dates and times of the webinar will be announced by news release and at the following Web site: https:// www.fs.fed.us/geology/groundwater. A recording of the webinar will also be posted on the Web site.

The Black Hills National Forest Advisory Board (Board) will meet in Rapid City, South Dakota. The Board is established consistent with the Federal Advisory Committee Act of 1972 (5 U.S.C. App. II), the Forest and Rangeland Renewable Resources Planning Act of 1974 (16 U.S.C. 1600 et.seq.), the National Forest Management Act of 1976 (16 U.S.C. 1612), and the Federal Public Lands Recreation Enhancement Act (Pub. L. 108-447). The meeting is open to the public. The purpose of the meeting is to provide:

This proposed rule invites comments on revisions to the procedure currently prescribed for issuing additional allotment base for Class 1 (Scotch) and Class 3 (Native) spearmint oil to new and existing producers under the Far West spearmint oil marketing order (order). The order regulates the handling of spearmint oil produced in the Far West and is administered locally by the Spearmint Oil Administrative Committee (Committee). This action would: Reduce the number of new producers that are issued additional allotment bases each year from three to two, for each class of oil; temporarily change the method by which additional allotment base is allocated to existing producers to take into account small production operations; and amend the requirements for eligibility, retention, and transfer of additional allotment base issued to new and existing producers. Revising the procedure for issuing additional allotment base would help ensure that new and existing spearmint oil producers have sufficient allotment base to be economically viable in the future.